ShredAir’s Journey is now a Trilogy: Part 1 “Northwest to Northwest” of this tri-lingual blog (English, German, Spanish) is about our 2008 drive from the US’ Pacific Northwest to the Northwest of South America. Part 2 “Colombia“ looks at our stay in Colombia, and Part 3 “The Andes” now follows our route south along the Andes, the air trails of the Andean Condor.

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Friday, July 31, 2015

Whoaa, now we’re in Ecuador. On Sunday afternoon (July 26) we arrived at a small airport for ultralight and model aircraft, run by a friend who we met during the F3A model airplane contests near Medellín.

The airport, complete with paved runways, taxiways, and hangars, sits above the town of Tabacundo about 10 miles north of Ecuador’s capital Quito. It’s a wonderful site at an elevation of 9,800 feet. We’ll be here a while, and we’ll post again from here.

How did we get here? Nice and slowly. We left the El Roble farm above the friendly village of Cordoba with the owners Piedad and Alejandro and drove with them to their place in Jamundi, south of Cali. There, we spent six nights in very warm climate, outwaiting another 3-day weekend.

From there, we went to Ecoparque Rayos del Sol north of Popayan. We spent two nights there, including a bus trip to Popayan.
We continued on to Chachagui, Nariño, on a longer drive (6 hours), which was a curvy as it was scenic. For long and interesting hours, we drove through arid and scrubby canyon lands, which we hadn’t known existed in Colombia.

The plan was to stay at Hostel Kundur in Chachagui, but... the entry gate was just a tad too low, even with all air removed from the suspension air bags. Of course, Kundur’s owners knew an alternate site only about 200 yards away, and it was spectacular. Directly out the camper door, we overlooked the Pasto River canyon and could watch passenger jets approaching and landing at the Pasto airport. We spent three nights there with the very friendly host family.

Sunday then, we drove across the border to Ecuador. Just as we had hoped, this was a breeze, a straight forward process with short lines, and no pesky tramitadores (people who tenaciously follow you around, offering “help,” and asking for money).

1 comment:

Good morning from Ashland, Oregon via Sacramento, California. I am visiting family, enjoying the woods and now, catching up on email. I enjoy reading about your adventures and looking at your pictures, I'm a virtual travel companion! I will never get to your part of the world so it is wonderful to see it through your eyes. Mom, Jane Ann, is well and being independent while I'm here, friends and neighbors are checking in with her. We've had teen grandchildren visiting us this summer, mostly fun! Also, we've been enjoying many of the theatre offerings of our area. There are many forest fires in our western region this summer, even though we had two drenching weeks of rain in June, it's so very dry after four years of drought. Life is good, though. Blessing be with you as you continue through all your days. I will share this with Mom when I return, she loves you both. I smile when thinking of our visit and send my love.Until later,Jocie

Germany

About Us

We are Dieter Mahlein from Germany and Marcela Leal from Colombia. Our company ShredAir, Inc. is dedicated to radio-controlled (RC) flight. We started ShredAir in Oregon, USA, importing mostly slope and electric gliders from Europe. ShredAir became an international company, supplying products, service, and support to RC pilots just about anywhere. We have organized and participated in events in the US, Germany, and Colombia.
In 2008, we drove from Oregon to Colombia where we wanted to promote RC flying in the Andes Mountains through fun fly gatherings, slope soaring and electric flying events. This we did, but our idea of offering complete tourism packages for pilots and their families never did work out as we envisioned.
Now, while we’re in South America and because we can, we continue traveling south along the Andes following the air trails of the Andean Condor.